As a college librarian, I often hear stressed-out students searching for primary sources say, "I'll take anything." Don't settle for just anything. There is a treasury of primary source material available electronically. Peruse my selection of 200-plus primary source sites by conducting a keyword search, exploring the tag cloud at left, or browsing by historical era. You can also visit my Delicious and Diigo sites to review my bookmarks. Here's hoping you find what you're looking for.

Sunday, June 27, 2010

I just finished reading The Leisure Seeker by Michael Zadoorian. I loved the story of John and Ella – an ailing elderly couple who decide to ditch their pestering doctors, their hovering children and their confining Detroit-area home to embark on one last road trip. They pack up their 78 Leisure Seeker RV and follow the fading path of Old Route 66 to Disneyland. While doing some additional reading about the history of Route 66, I learned that on this day in 1985 the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials decertified the road and voted to remove all its highway signs. While the road is disappearing, there are a number of digital repositories featuring Route 66 resources. Taken together, those oral histories, photographs, tourist pamphlets and travelogues tell the story of the 2,200-mile road that stretched from Illinois to California. Among those collections are Route 66 in New Mexico: Archival Materials from the University of New Mexico Libraries digital collections, Route 66 Collections from Oklahoma State University – Tulsa Library, and America on the Move, a Smithsonian exhibit that traces the travels of four young women on America’s Highway. The picture above comes from the University of New Mexico. Happy travels.